Sorry - last food post for a while, I promise

epphd

OK, so I am abandoning purees for a while.  Maybe we'll try once a week or something, but I suspect Sam is just not a puree kid.

So, if I want to offer him food he can handle himself (sort of a baby-led weaning approach), do I have to cook everything, or just make sure it is soft?  Also, do I have to wait three days before introducing something new? i.e. pears only for 3 days, then try bananas - so bananas OR pears for the next three days, then try apples - so bananas or pears or apples...

OR, do we just let him nibble on anything that is safe (so no honey, nuts, strawberries or wheat) as he is interested?  I'm not super paranoid about allergies, but should I be?

Thanks - this is a whole new thing, but I am feeling better about it than trying to keep forcing something he doesn't seem ready for.

 

Mrs.Babbsy

I tested the girls on yogurt melts before going forward with anything other than purees. Itty bitty had no teeth and was great with them and OMG they LOVE the yogurt melts.

I mushed banannas, apples... etc

Your line of thinking is right even though I didn't follow it:) I just gave them pretty much anything once they started taking the yogurt melts. There is no fear in our family because we have been there done that, my babies are number 16 and 17 grandkids.

 

oct11bride03

Ditto Babbs. Once I gave K puffs and yogurt melts and knew she could handle them, I'll give her anything to try. Sometimes she'll eat it and sometimes she won't. I haven't been doing the wait three days thing since she started purees...neither family has known allergies so all we're avoiding is honey and peanut butter at this point.

The key is small pieces and definitely mush up what you can. Can he do the pincer grasp? If so, small pieces are good so he can get them in his mouth. K's about 1 for 5 in actually getting things into her mouth by herself...it's funny to watch.

Mrs.Babbsy

oh yeah and puffs....

GypsyEsq

Well.... I'm going to be the contrary voice.  We do BLW and the approach to start with is to feed "sticks" of food that they can gnaw on that wouldn't pose a choking hazard so we'd do a half or quarter banana with the bottom portion of peel left on and give it to DD.  She'd hold it and nom on what part of the fruit she could reach and we'd just continue to cut off peel.  Or, you could do a pretty firm banana coated in cheerio dust.  The bitty pieces of soft food (cooked, steamed or naturally soft) came later (and come later per BLW principles) because the idea is getting them used to the feel of foods in their mouth and on their hands before advancing to pincher grasp stage.  I'm talking like two weeks later though...but still.  I found it far easier to manage my apprehension with her eating foods by giving her larger things.  Other big hits -- roasted or grilled asparagus spears (which she tends to suck on) and roasted potato (sweet or otherwise) wedges.  If there was something smaller we wanted to give her -- I'm thinking the night she had peas for instance -- we put them in the mesh feeder.

On the wait rules -- we skipped them all.  Never worried about it.  All she hasn't had at this point is honey (botulism concern only though, no allergy concern with that one) and nuts and nut butters. 

 

ETA: DD has also had and loves yogurt melts and baby mum mums, she's the odd kid who hates puffs with a passion but those are snacky type things anyway and we weren't giving those to her as part of meal time.  My above "advice" regarding mealtimes was more to address the idea of testing Sam's abilities to eat/nom on solids with puffs and melts, I mean those melt...so they don't really tell you much about his ability to handle foods IMO.  Giving him something to gnaw on will at least let you see whether or nor he's on board with the concept of eating foods/mashing them in his mouth in  BLW approach without also introducing the idea of pincher grasp skills which is fairly advanced.  But...that's my 2 cents.

epphd

GypsyEsq:

Well.... I'm going to be the contrary voice.  We do BLW and the approach to start with is to feed "sticks" of food that they can gnaw on that wouldn't pose a choking hazard so we'd do a half or quarter banana with the bottom portion of peel left on and give it to DD.  She'd hold it and nom on what part of the fruit she could reach and we'd just continue to cut off peel.  Or, you could do a pretty firm banana coated in cheerio dust.  The bitty pieces of soft food (cooked, steamed or naturally soft) came later (and come later per BLW principles) because the idea is getting them used to the feel of foods in their mouth and on their hands before advancing to pincher grasp stage.  I'm talking like two weeks later though...but still.  I found it far easier to manage my apprehension with her eating foods by giving her larger things.  Other big hits -- roasted or grilled asparagus spears (which she tends to suck on) and roasted potato (sweet or otherwise) wedges.  If there was something smaller we wanted to give her -- I'm thinking the night she had peas for instance -- we put them in the mesh feeder.

On the wait rules -- we skipped them all.  Never worried about it.  All she hasn't had at this point is honey (botulism concern only though, no allergy concern with that one) and nuts and nut butters. 

 

ETA: DD has also had and loves yogurt melts and baby mum mums, she's the odd kid who hates puffs with a passion but those are snacky type things anyway and we weren't giving those to her as part of meal time.  My above "advice" regarding mealtimes was more to address the idea of testing Sam's abilities to eat/nom on solids with puffs and melts, I mean those melt...so they don't really tell you much about his ability to handle foods IMO.  Giving him something to gnaw on will at least let you see whether or nor he's on board with the concept of eating foods/mashing them in his mouth in  BLW approach without also introducing the idea of pincher grasp skills which is fairly advanced.  But...that's my 2 cents.

Yes - that's where we are.  thanks - I think we will start with the big stick idea. It just seems like that would be more satisfying for him and will help us identify some things to maybe mash or puree later if he wants to actually consume something.  He's not pinching yet so I would not do small things.  I mainly needed to know whether we should wait between introducing things or whether all things had to be cooked. Sounds like many things should just to make them soft. Thanks again!!